Neuf Cegetel ups profits, eyes FTTH goals

French carrier Neuf Cegetel announced a 23% increase in net income for 2007, along with more details about the goals for the company's fiber-to-the-home deployment. The company also said, however, that CEO Jacques Veyrat will depart after the firm's takeover by Vivendi's SFR mobile unit is completed.

Neuf Cegetel now has 3.2 million broadband customers and about 21% market share in France, which has allowed the carrier to move ahead of fellow alternative provider Iliad in that department. The company also said the FTTH network is expected to pass 1 million homes and have 250,000 household connected by the end of 2009. Neuf Cegetel is in the process of investing at least $460 million in FTTH over a period of three years. Like Iliad, it also is pressing France Telecom and French regulators for better terms for access to incumbent France Telecom's network.

For more:
- see this coverage [1] of the FTTH plan at Light Reading Europe
- read this story [2] about Veyrat's departure at MarketWatch

Related article:
- Neuf Cegetel is featured in a special Fierce report [3] on European IPTV